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[omlet]

Just a few more observations from messing around with different parties in the demo...

Necro's wraiths will do basic attacks without the necro needing to use a command skill, but they have a chance to just do nothing and their accuracy is very low so if you may need some evasion debuffs to throw on enemies if you want damage out of them. Looking at the skill tree for necros, I was thinking they were maybe an early-game healer, but so far I've been using them more as a tank and it's working out.

Since the summoned whatevers limit is 3, at high levels I'm not sure how well a necro will get along with having a rover pet or bunker dragoon in the same party... but for now 2 wraiths at a time has been plenty.

Rover's hound will use Lick Wounds to heal allies at the end of a turn without the rover using a command skill. The proc rate is high but I don't think it's 100%? Furthermore, this is in addition to the healing provided at the end of the turn by Animal Therapy. Meanwhile, the hawk as the damage-oriented pet will do its own auto-attacks during turns it is present. The hawk's basic attacks have a chance to apply Head Bind.

In case there was doubt about the usefulness of the racial skills, not only do "good" outcomes from various exploration events depend on having those skills, you can't forage for food items (which offer out-of-battle HP/TP sustain) without them.

For making money, what I tried was I made a team of 4 humans (I did dragoons, with the hopes that they could survive long enough to run away from battles) and then 1 of each other race. Humans get the yield increase passive, while the other three races each have one gathering skill. So with this team you can make multiple trips with 4 humans+1 other race to the appropriate gathering spots so you can get up to 5 gathers per node. Use the Memory Conch to level them up to 5+. It kinda works but if you're using warp wires to get home quickly it really cuts into your profits. Probably will be more effective at higher floors when the materials sell for more and the 100g to get home doesn't hurt as much.

 

[Zweizer]

Necro's wraiths will do basic attacks without the necro needing to use a command skill, but they have a chance to just do nothing and their accuracy is very low so if you may need some evasion debuffs to throw on enemies if you want damage out of them. Looking at the skill tree for necros, I was thinking they were maybe an early-game healer, but so far I've been using them more as a tank and it's working out.

Since the summoned whatevers limit is 3, at high levels I'm not sure how well a necro will get along with having a rover pet or bunker dragoon in the same party... but for now 2 wraiths at a time has been plenty.

Rover's hound will use Lick Wounds to heal allies at the end of a turn without the rover using a command skill. The proc rate is high but I don't think it's 100%? Furthermore, this is in addition to the healing provided at the end of the turn by Animal Therapy. Meanwhile, the hawk as the damage-oriented pet will do its own auto-attacks during turns it is present. The hawk's basic attacks have a chance to apply Head Bind.

The Wraiths can sometimes inflict paralysis as well, but in my case it takesseveral attempts from them before it succeeds, and more often than not it occurs at unfortunate times, overriding my Fencer's blind. As is generally the case, the fact that you can't really control the summons short of spending a turn yourself can be annoying, and I fear they might trigger some devastating counter against later bosses.

 

[Nachos]

Any of these working? I'm willing to start over from scratch if not.

EDIT: Changed the proportions.

 

[omlet]

The Wraiths can sometimes inflict paralysis as well, but in my case it takesseveral attempts from them before it succeeds, and more often than not it occurs at unfortunate times, overriding my Fencer's blind. As is generally the case, the fact that you can't really control the summons short of spending a turn yourself can be annoying, and I fear they might trigger some devastating counter against later bosses.

Would they really design a boss that is that much of a fuck you to a specific class? Or really two classes, in this case. I guess it's not out of the question but that seems unlikely considering the balance of the last few games. Sure, there are some "better" setups for things, especially in postgame, but usually not mechanics that effectively completely invalidate a class...

 

[spiritfox]

Any of these working? I'm willing to start over from scratch if not.

EDIT: Changed the proportions.

Not sure what you're going for, but if they're supposed to be roots, they don't look like it.

Spoiler

They look like balls.

 

[Zweizer]

Any of these working? I'm willing to start over from scratch if not.

EDIT: Changed the proportions.

You really want to insert that infinity symbol into it, huh?

Would they really design a boss that is that much of a fuck you to a specific class? Or really two classes, in this case. I guess it's not out of the question but that seems unlikely considering the balance of the last few games. Sure, there are some "better" setups for things, especially in postgame, but usually not mechanics that effectively completely invalidate a class...

That's the big question, isn't it? Past installments generally indicate that the game balance should account for all classes, but then again you had the worthless EOII Beast. I'm just wary of classes that have a certain amount of unpredictability, lol.

 

[Nachos]

Not sure what you're going for, but if they're supposed to be roots, they don't look like it.

Spoiler

They look like balls.

Yeah...that's what I was worried about, which is why I made it asymmetrical later, but I didn't know if I was just seeing things or if I was looking at it for too long. Right now, though, I'm just trying to figure out a general shape outline to use for the symbol. Whenever I settle on a design, I'm going to go over it and actually make it look like a plant.

I'm just trying a new way of making icons by following basic geometric shapes, and in this case, you can draw the entire plant in a single line, but all that doesn't matter if the design just doesn't work. I'm going to try something else now.

You really want to insert that infinity symbol into it, huh?

Not especially. I was just trying to see if I could salvage the old concept in some way. In this case, it was less about the infinity symbol being overt and more just using it to guide the way the line flows.

 

[Zweizer]

Yeah...that's what I was worried about, which is why I made it asymmetrical later, but I didn't know if I was just seeing things or if I was looking at it for too long. Right now, though, I'm just trying to figure out a general shape outline to use for the symbol. Whenever I settle on a design, I'm going to go over it and actually make it look like a plant.

I'm just trying a new way of making icons by following basic geometric shapes, and in this case, you can draw the entire plant in a single line, but all that doesn't matter if the design just doesn't work. I'm going to try something else now.

Not especially. I was just trying to see if I could salvage the old concept in some way. In this case, it was less about the infinity symbol being overt and more just using it to guide the way the line flows.

I think you should make the roots smaller and flatter actually, and not have its end almost completely loop around, but just a bit halfway there. They shouldn't be much wider than the leaves at least. Very quick and dirty edit:

Yours tend to stand out too much, taking about 60%-75% of the picture, when they should have an even distribution.

Basically, like take 2 or 3 of your series of four previously posted, but more ellipsoidal without increasing the width.

 

[Nachos]

I think you should make the roots smaller and flatter actually, and not have its end almost completely loop around, but just a bit halfway there. They shouldn't be much wider than the leaves at least. Very quick and dirty edit:

Yours tend to stand out too much, taking about 60%-75% of the picture, when they should have an even distribution.

Basically, like take 2 or 3 of your series of four previously posted, but more ellipsoidal without increasing the width.

Yeah, that makes sense. Just because I'm mostly keeping to geometric proportions doesn't mean I have those proportions correct. I'm going to try sketching some more and post them here before I even start working on them. I think I've been putting the cart before the horse.

 

[Flying Fish]

I could use some team-building help. My current party composition looks like this:

Fencer - Harbinger OR Dragoon - Masurao
Necromancer OR Warlock - Botanist

Any advice on the contested slots? Or should I kick someone else out to make room for both?

 

[Zweizer]

Yeah, that makes sense. Just because I'm mostly keeping to geometric proportions doesn't mean I have those proportions correct. I'm going to try sketching some more and post them here before I even start working on them. I think I've been putting the cart before the horse.

I hope you don't plan to draw too many icons, lol. I do appreciate good how much effort you're putting into the OT.

I could use some team-building help. My current party composition looks like this:

Fencer - Harbinger OR Dragoon - Masurao
Necromancer OR Warlock - Botanist

Any advice on the contested slots? Or should I kick someone else out to make room for both?

The key role here is tanking, so you'll have to decide between either Dragoon and Warlock, or Necromancer and Harbinger, as Dragoon or Necromancer are your only tanking options other than dodge-tank Fencer.

Now, strictly talking about the demo, Dragoon/Warlock will be far easier to use than Necromancer/Harbinger, as the former duo is much more straightforward and needs less skill points to function effectively that early in the game. Necromancer/Harbinger requires quite a bit of preparation during the fight before they can use their full arsenal, but they do have the advantage of being more versatile and are capable of inflicting ailments.

You could pick Dragoon/Necromancer as well, but the latter function best with three free summon slots.

 

[spiritfox]

I think dropping the infinity and making it a single loop might be better.

 

[Man God]

I actually think Necromancers are less skill intensive than Warlocks for the demo. Just one point into summons and one point into blowing up summon/healing with summon makes them a credible threat in any fight early on.

 

[Zweizer]

Ah sorry, I meant for tanking.

 

[CharlesSurge]

Anyone know whats up with Amazon USA on this and related titles? They're just listed as "currently unavailable". (Related titles being the only other ones I checked: Strange Journey 3DS, Radiant Historia 3DS, Demon Gaze II Vita/PS4, but not The Alliance Alive.) On the game's website Amazon isn't listed as a place to purchase and the game releases in three weeks. I already have it pre-ordered on Amazon from back when it could be.

 

[omlet]

Huh, you're right... my first thought was maybe they filled their preorders for their initial allotment but if Amazon isn't linked as a place to buy the game from the main site that's kind of strange (if it was linked before, at least--I never looked/noticed). Is it time for the atlusprime batsignal?

 

[Derkon]

Yeah was wondering what was going on as well. Might just have to get this from Best Buy then.

 

[Man God]

Unless it becomes wildly useless later on I think just based on the demo Dragoon will be my favorite tank class since EO 1/2 era protector.

 

[omlet]

Last night I did some more party experimenting (at lv10), this time with a necro as main tank with no rover or dragoon to compete for summon slots. Using F/M | W/N/S I was able to handily beat 3 worms and 2 owlbears with only 1 death (of course I had to go rest after 2 battles). At higher level when necro can get wraith spawns more reliably without spending a turn, they will probably be quite good at the tank role unless there are fights where there is too much AOE damage to keep up with.

When I used dragoon on the first 1-10 leveling excursion in the demo, I handled the FOEs by throwing out multiple bunkers. I'm kind of wondering where this leaves Rover. You can't really use them if you want a necro to tank, and while a dragoon can still use guard skills without bunkers, it's hard to ignore the usefulness of bunkers since their TP cost is low and the ROI is very high. I guess you could use R+D and only have one bunker out at a time so there's room for both pets.

 

[Zweizer]

I think later in the game you'll mostly play with one pet with Rover as their specializations kinda force them to focus on a single one.

 

[spiritfox]

Rovers can have both pets out without having to heavily invest in both. You just really need the bind skills from both sides.

 

[asagami_]

Welp, so the demo "finished". I will level up the other classes meanwhile.

 

[KarmaCow]

Are the adventure event related racial abilities linked to anything unique? Like having the detect magic skill will let you get a weapon or item you can't get anywhere else. Judging from the events I encountered I'm guessing no but I finally settled on a party without Celestrians and I'm wondering if I would be missing out on anything significant.

 

[Zweizer]

I'd say the unique racial skills may affect the way the events resolve, but not really the outcome and rewards themselves. At worst you could always reclass a Celestrian to fit your party.

 

[omlet]

What's the trick to getting the honey on floor 3? I've tried a few different racial skills but none seemed to work.

Are the adventure event related racial abilities linked to anything unique? Like having the detect magic skill will let you get a weapon or item you can't get anywhere else. Judging from the events I encountered I'm guessing no but I finally settled on a party without Celestrians and I'm wondering if I would be missing out on anything significant.

Who knows... I mean this is a game series that has locked items behind doors that only specific classes can unlock, so it's not out of the question that they might hide some things behind certain skills. That said, from what I saw in the demo I kind of doubt that anything of major importance or uniqueness would be locked away. Obviously dungeon meshi requires them; the foraging/hunting events/locations would not give you stuff (or as much stuff) without them.

One good example of why I think they're going to be mostly flavor-text stuff was in floor 3 when you are knocking over the stone statues, one has some text on it that it says you can't read. If you have detect magic in your party, that party member will be able to decipher the words...but all it tells you is to go knock over the statues, which of course you were going to do anyway without being told, because what self-respecting explorer wouldn't knock them over when given the chance lol.

That said, I love the flavor stuff, and even on hard mode the demo has been easy enough that I didn't feel held back by sinking a few points into racial skills, so I will probably continue to do my initial explorations with a party that has a good selection of racial/exploration skills, then I can rest/retire them at endgame for more pure combat-oriented builds.

 

[Zweizer]

What's the trick to getting the honey on floor 3? I've tried a few different racial skills but none seemed to work.

From what I've gathered you'll need access to upper floors for that, so gotta wait for the full game. Same for Jenetta asking for honey.

 

[spiritfox]

I wonder if I should class change my Warlock to Smoke Botanist for a full ailment party. I'll lose my elemental damage though, and Botanist is kinda useless damage wise for random encounters.

 

[Nachos]

I hope you don't plan to draw too many icons, lol. I do appreciate good how much effort you're putting into the OT.

Nah, it's just the one, which is why I'm spending so much time on it.

I've taken a break on that stuff for now, though. Right now, I'm just vectorizing and cleaning up the class icons that only show up in the art book. Maybe by the time I finish all ten, I'll have figured out some other directions to go in.

 

[spiritfox]

Oh that's super cool.

 

[Nachos]

Oh that's super cool.

Yeah, which is shame, since the only place they appear in-game is on the shaman's cards, but the 3DS screen is too small to show that detail. Reminds me of the red-haired pirate in III having Raihou from Devil Summoner on his eyepatch.

Here's a preview of what's to come, though:

Most of them are obvious, but going from left to right, you've got Fencer, Dragoon, Pugilist, Harbinger, Masurao, Rover, Warlock, Necromancer, Shaman, Botanist, and the two cut classes, Horn and Reptilian.

There were actually more complex versions, but I guess they pared them down because the details got lost at small sizes and because they wanted the icons to look like the ornaments that all the classes wear (like the Pugilist and Masurao belts):

And the rough sketches they started with:

 

[spiritfox]

I remember hearing about the reptilian. It's a shame they didn't managed to put it in. The game is

Spoiler

missing a later game unlock class and a new reptilian race would have been a great fit.

 

[Zweizer]

Yeah these are really great. Shame about the cut classes.

 

[Fou-Lu]

I am considering trying out the Etrian Odyssey series as I love classic dungeon RPGs like Might and Magic. Is it best to just start with the first game? Any other tips and thoughts for a newbie?

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I am considering trying out the Etrian Odyssey series as I love classic dungeon RPGs like Might and Magic. Is it best to just start with the first game? Any other tips and thoughts for a newbie?

Probably start with 4 or 5 tbh.
Mostly just try stuff out to see what you like. Don't trust squirrels. Feel fee to ask here with any questions.

 

[Zweizer]

I am considering trying out the Etrian Odyssey series as I love classic dungeon RPGs like Might and Magic. Is it best to just start with the first game? Any other tips and thoughts for a newbie?

I'd say start with either IV, or the first Untold in Classic mode, which is a remake of the first game.

 

[omlet]

I wonder if I should class change my Warlock to Smoke Botanist for a full ailment party. I'll lose my elemental damage though, and Botanist is kinda useless damage wise for random encounters.

It's remarkable how bad Botanist is at poisoning enemies that are weak to poison.

 

[Grim Patron]

IM BACK.

Also ordered EMD 2 CE from Amazon JP. Its like 60% off sold by amazon. Worth it for the artbook and anniv OST.

 

[Zweizer]

Welcome back, lol. Do you expect EMD2 to be good?

 

[Grim Patron]

Welcome back, lol. Do you expect EMD2 to be good?

Dunno. I have a region free 3DS. so ill try it for sure. I liked EMD1.

But I'm reviewing something else on 3DS.............something I've wanted for a while...........

 

[tuffy]

Though I can't vouch for the quality of the game, EMD2's limited edition set is very well done. The artbook is huge and the 10th Anniversary CD has an impressive selection of good tracks.

 

[Grim Patron]

Though I can't vouch for the quality of the game, EMD2's limited edition set is very well done. The artbook is huge and the 10th Anniversary CD has an impressive selection of good tracks.

I was hoping EOV artbook would be sold by someone but haven't had any luck looking for it.

This OST is gonna be great.

 

[tuffy]

I was hoping EOV artbook would be sold by someone but haven't had any luck looking for it.

This OST is gonna be great.

Last I checked there were some sellers offering the big EO V set on Amazon.co.jp along with the artbook, but you may need a deputy service to ship it to you.

Though the anniversary EMD2 artbook does feature some EO V character art at least!

 

[Man God]

Amazon still doesn't have EO V up. I was actually considering getting it physical but I guess I'll go digital.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Amazon still doesn't have EO V up. I was actually considering getting it physical but I guess I'll go digital.

US Amazon? Shows as available for preorder again for me.
Link

 

[Man God]

US Amazon? Shows as available for preorder again for me.
Link

...it was literally unavailable an hour ago. COOL.

 

[Grim Patron]

Last I checked there were some sellers offering the big EO V set on Amazon.co.jp along with the artbook, but you may need a deputy service to ship it to you.

Though the anniversary EMD2 artbook does feature some EO V character art at least!

Yea that turns out too expensive. I should’ve just kept my initial preorder. Amazon JP to me shipping is much cheaper than anything else and they use DHL.

 

[Holundrian]

Imported V for my jp 3ds and been getting into it. It's been a bit of a struggle since I feel like there is a small research barrier/theory crafting barrier for the game(at least with the way how I play it) but once I got over that there's a really enjoyable flow to it all. Just reached the second stratum so the game hasn't opened up completely yet for me.
I think the rough patch is especially when the difficulty rises and your party isn't quite there exp wise to have the tools to challenge it but yeah super looking forward to unlock specializations and open up the party crafting game.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Been farming monies and gear on the demo. I've kinda settled on my crew: Dragoon, Botanist, Rover, Warlock and Pugilist. I wanna drop the Warlock, but every other Etrian Odyssey game required some form of elemental damage and I don't know if this one will be different. Tempted to run two Dragoons.

I like heavy armor, what can I say.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

I'm completely stuck in the Miasma Forest of EOIV. I need to get the materials which are supposed to be in a harvest spot at the north of the first floor, but there's a Greedy Lizard FOE there who I have no chance against, and aggros on me no matter what I do.

I managed to do it by repeatedly selecting Escape and getting to the door on the other side, but I really see no way to do this that doesn't require pure luck in escaping from the lizard.

 

[Zweizer]

I'm completely stuck in the Miasma Forest of EOIV. I need to get the materials which are supposed to be in a harvest spot at the north of the first floor, but there's a Greedy Lizard FOE there who I have no chance against, and aggros on me no matter what I do.

I managed to do it by repeatedly selecting Escape and getting to the door on the other side, but I really see no way to do this that doesn't require pure luck in escaping from the lizard.

(I had to reboot the game after all these years because I mostly forgot what this map was about, lol.)

If you've gotten inside the upper-right door, you should be able to time it so that you can avoid it while going for the upper-left door (it's straight ahead). Since the FOE only moves once every two actions, this gives you a window to slip past it without it noticing you. Once inside the upper-left door, you should be able to harvest the node to your leisure.

Edit: To be fair the window is very small. The proper timing should be when it's 3 spaces from the upper-right door. You'll have to go back and forth once, and then you can go straight ahead.

Edit 2: Alternatively you could just slip past the FOE and harvest the node, then let the miasma take you back.